Fantastic Five
by Lady Dark Hope
Summary: What if Ben's younger cousin was with them at the time. Could they come together as the Fantastic Five?
1. Just the Start of it All

Auther's Note: Okay, I know this has done before, but I figure I would take a wack at it. This all came about when I was watching the movie. When the group were in the elevator and it wouldn't go up, so Ben had to take the stairs, it sadden me when he gave that look and no one would go with him. I figured if I was there, I would go with him. This complete movie story is completely spun off of that. Anyways, it'll be like reading the movie. The only differance is that Ben has a younger cousin that went with them, so it's the Fantastic Five.

* * *

Three figures stand there and stare at a tall statue, as a man works on it, causing sparks to fly off it. "Typical of Victor Von Doom to build a thirty foot statue of himself," claims a bald man.

"Well, it's obivisily aimed at first time visiters to create feeling of smallness. Inadequatice." The dark haired man said as he looked up at it.

The girl with the long dark brown hair tilts her head and looks at it. "It gives me the feeling that I should bite this man's knee caps off."

Both the men look over at her and she blinks back in response. "Well, good thing it ain't working," replied the bald man. They begin to walk towards the doors and the bald man speaks up again. "Reed, what are we doing here? This guys is fast food, strip mall science."

The man know as Reed responds, "Ben, you know this isn't our first stop in case you have forgotten NASA. Besides, Victor isn't that bad, he's just a little larger than life."

They made their way through the door, and to the nearest elevator. Ben turns towards the girl, "So, Addison, what do you think about Victor?"

Addison shakes her head as she thinks on the question for a few seconds. "I don't rightly know. I haven't met him, yet, so I can't make a judgement."

They finally made their way to where they were going and Reed was allowed to set up. Finally, Reed was allowed to begin his presentation. "My research suggests that exposure to a high energy cosmic storm born on solar winds," Reed states as he points to a red mass on the hologram, "might have triggered the early planetary life." Clicking on the remote, Reed changes the hologram again. Addison stares at amazment as Ben just stared at the guy in the shadows. "In just six weeks another cloud, with the same elemental profile will pass near Earth's orbit. Reed walks a little closer to the man in the shadows, changing the image again. "A study, conducted in space, could fundamentally advance our knowledge about the structure of the human genome." The guy in the shadows, just sits there, taking it all in, not making any indication. "Cure countless dieases, extend human life." Ben begins to squirm a little, in fear that Reed might be over doing it. Addison nudges him with her elbow, he glances down at her and smiles a little. "Give kids a chance to live longer, stronger, healther..."

"Turn it off!" The man in the shadows exclaims. Reed stares at him in shock, "Please."

"I don't think I've explained my proposal fully." Reed finally says from his over comed shock.

"No, I think you have," replied the man in the shadows. Reed stares at him, trying to figure him out, so do Addison and Ben as they lean a little to get a better look at the situation. "Same old Reed, always stretching, reaching for the stars, with the weight of the world on his back, but dreams don't pay the bills, do they?" The shadow man throws a magazine across the table, landing showing Reed the cover of Wired with his face on it.

"Do you remember when we where in school," Reed started to move again, trying to find any hook he could, "we talked about working together. Well, that's about where I was going to explain." Reed presses another button on the remote, changing the image into what looked like a space station. "The storm is deadly, but sheilds on your station's control room, are designed to protect any occupents inside."

The shadow man clicks something, turning off the hologram and turning the lights up on him. "So, it's not just my money you want, it's my toys." Reed nods a little, not denying that fact. "Tell me, if NASA doesn't trust you, why should I?" Reed tries not to act a little surprised by the fact that he knows that. Ben and Addison look at each other, then at Reed. Reed looks right back them. The man smiles then laughes out, "It's my job," he gets up and out of the chair, "to stay a step ahead," making his way around the table, heading towards the group. "To know, what other men, don't."

"Ah, I can't take this," Ben says as he turn and walks towards Reed. Addison just stands there and stares at the man, profiling the man known as Victor Von Doom.

"Ben, this is just business," Reed kind of glances at him and motions with his hand, "just work."

A blond lady steps in and then draws the attention of everyone in the room when she says, "He's right Ben, it is just business." Reed's eyes gets wide, but he continues to stare straight a head, but both Ben and Addison turn and look at the girl.

"I think you all know my directior of genetic research," Victor indicates with his head towards the blond girl, "Susan Storm."

Susan starts to walk towards them, Reed turns to look at Susan, Addison starts to walk over to Susan, Ben just looks over at Victor and turns back to Reed. "One more thing he seems to have."

Susan hugs Addison. "Hey Addy, is your cousin Ben still making you hang around, helping Reed out?"

Addison rolls her eyes. "You better believe it. He keeps saying he want me to use my smarts and get a degree."

"I want someone in this family to accomplish something good," Ben replies.

"Oh, and you being an astronaut isn't some big accomplishment?"

"Hey Suzy," Ben says trying to move away from the arguement.

"Hey," she goes over to him and hugs, "Oh, it's so nice to see you." They pull away from each other and she asks, "How's Debbie?"

"Great!" he replies, smiling.

"Great!" she smiles then steps over to Reed, her smile disappearing.

"How've you been?" Reed askes.

"Never better," she replies emotionless, shaking his hand. Addison and Ben look at the handshake, a little sad at it.

"This isn't going to be a problem, is it?" Victor askes.

Reed instantly turns, both Susan and Reed look at Victor. "Not at all," Reed says.

"No," Susan says at exactly the sametime.

"Good," Victor starts to walk towards them as Reed seems to be a little hurt about what Susan said, "then you are just in time to hear the great, Reed Richards," Victor walks between them and talks to Susan, "ask me for help." They turn and stare at Victor as he stands next to Susan, Reed a little tense. "You know you made a lot of folks at MIT, feel like a junior high science fair, so you'll excuse me, if I savor the moment." He laughs a little.

Reed sucks in some breath and continues, "You back this mission and I'll sign over a fair precentage of any applications..."

"The number is 75," Victor interupts. Reed stare in shock at the large number and Addison starts to glare, her muscles tense up as if to strike, her sharp tongue about to come out. "and it's applications and patents."

"What about his first born?" Ben jumps in, to ruin the tension.

"Ben," Reed says, trying to get him to settle down, not realising the distraction.

"Come on," Victor laughs, "25 of a billion is enough to keep the lights on for a while, isn't it?" Reed swallows the truth as he looks at Victor. "Maybe you could pay of the forth mortgage on the Baxter Building." Reed looks down at the ground, knowing what Victor said was true, Susan pretended to be in thought not wanting to see this happen, Ben just stared at Victor, and Addison was about ready to jump Victor. Victor puts on his game face, "Deal?" as he holds out his hand towards Reed. Reed looks at it, then at Susan. She stares back at him, then looks down at Victors hand. Reed then goes and shakes his hand. "Well, then, to our future. Together!" He puts his arm around Susan's shoulders. Ben just smiles at him and Addison just smirks. "It's funny how things turn out, isn't it," Victor laughes.

"Hilarious," Reed says without laughing.


	2. The Fatal Trip

After mingling for a short bit, to hammer the details out on paper, Ben leans over and whispers to Addison, "What did you think about Victor Von Doom?"

"I don't like him," she whispers back. "He rubs me the wrong way."

Ben nods and leans away from her. Of all the things he knows, he knows that his way younger cousin can tell if she likes a person, and most of the time, a good judge of character. They walked over to Reed as he begins to pack up his stuff, into his metal suit case. He then snaps the lid close, "He knew about NASA," the group turns to walk away. "Maybe he made the call to shut us down."

"Ben, think about all the people can help if this works. Huh? We got what we wanted, that's enough. A few days in space, it'll be great."

"I've always wanted to go to space," Addison added as she watched a guy walk into the room as they were leaving.

Ben gives Reed, then Addison a look. "What's the worst that can happen?" Reed questions.

They finally get to the elevator, and Addison presses the button to go down. Standing there, waiting, Susan catches up to them. The elevator finally get's there, and they all pile in. Sue, presses the button to go down to the ground floor. They stand there for a second, then Sue speaks up, "Reed, you should know those solar winds have been picking up speed."

"I've factored them in to my equations," Reed responds instantly.

Addison and Ben watch back in forth between the two. "Right, course you did, in theory. It's a little different, once your out there."

"I assure you, I factored them..."

"When are we leaving?" Ben jumps right in.

Sue turns to look at Ben. "I'll be scheduling the launch," she pulls a card out of her pocket and holds it out towards Reed, "so, call me in the morning for resources and crew."

Reed kind of smiles, "I think I remember the number."

"It's been changed," she replies back, without missing a beat.

Reed's face drops a little and he takes the card. Addison gives a small cough. Reed looks back at Addison. Both Addison and Ben tilt their heads and look towards Sue. "As far as crew, I was hoping that Addison here could be come along as an assistant."

"I'm sure that can be arranged."

"And that Ben can pilot the mission."

Sue looks at Ben, "We already have a pilot on payroll, but you're welcome to ride shot gun. Remember my brother Johnny?" Ben blinks in surprised, Reed thinks back, and Addison raises an eyebrow.

* * *

The Fantastic Four debut in _The Fantastic Four #1 _on Nov. 1961

* * *

The group of three stood on a platform, hard hats on their heads, staring through binoculars. They watched as the guy on the motorcycle pull a way from the car, speeding down the dirt way. "I like the bike," Addison just says out of nowhere.

Ben just pulls his binoculars down and just calmly and flatly says, "Can't do it. Can not do it." He begins to turn and walk a way.

Reed pulls down his binoculars and continues to look out. "External SRBs, orbital system engines. It's just like the shuttles you flew.."

"No!" Ben holds his hand up to stop Reed as he turns to look at Ben. He moves closer to Reed to prove his point. "I cannot take orders from the underwear model," he points out towards where Johnny was last seen.

"Oh, come on Ben," Reed tries to ease his friend. Addison puts her binoculars down, and stares at Ben.

"That wing nut washed out of NASA for sneaking two Victoria Secret wannabes into a flight simulator."

"That was him?" Addy gapes.

Reed rolls his eyes and replies, "Youthful High Spirits."

"They crashed it into a wall!" Ben states. "A flight simulator!"

Addy goes back to looking out over the view and Reed leans on to the rail. "When have I asked you to do something you absoltuly said you could not do?"

"Five times!" Ben holds his hand up in his face to prove a point, then begins to go down the stairs, with Addy starting to follow him.

"I had it at four," Reed states.

"Well, this makes five," Ben replies without looking back.

Reed turns and looks at Addy as she steps on the steps. She nods, "He's right, this does make five." She then continues to follow him. Reed just smiles, leans back on the railing, and looks out over the view.

* * *

Issue #4 the hyperbolic tagline "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" was added above the title

* * *

Reed sat in a chair, typing away at his computer. Ben was carefully unpacking his bag. He pulls out a book and flips through the pages, where a picture of him and a blond lady are smiling together. Touching the picture, he says, "I miss you already, Debs."

"Captain on the bridge!" Ben snaps the book close, drops it, and snaps to attention. He was greeted with a flash in his face. Johnny walks in, looking at the picture he just got. "Digital Camera: $254. Memory Stick: $59. The look on your hard ass former CO's face when he finds out he's your junior officer: priceless." Reed just glances up and smiles. Johnny sits down and Ben moves threatenly towards him. He jerks back a little when Ben goes for his neck, but Ben just adjusts the zipper. Laughing, Johnny says, "Thank you, sweetie!"

Ben just smiles, "I can handle the ship, I can even handle Mr. Blond ambition there, but I don't know if I should be flying or doing Swan Lake in this suits. I mean, who in the hell came up with these?" He pulls a skin tight blue suit from his locker to illustrate a point.

Sue comes strolling in, wearing hers, with Addy right behind her, both of them carring flight suits. "Victor did. The synthetics act as a second skin. Adapting to your body's individuall needs.

Reed stands up, staring, as Johnny speaks up. "See, that means it keeps the hot stuff hot, and the cool stuff cool." Johnny glances over at Addy, then does a double take. "Like this hot stuff will definitely stay hot." He starts to preen himself up alittle. "Hi, I'm Johnny Storm, the pilot."

Ben begins to glare, but without even blinking Addy responds, "I already know you Johnny. Nice to see you haven't changed."

"We've met?" his ego deflats a little.

"Yeah," she chucks his flight suit at him, "Ben's little cousin," she points over to Ben.

Johnny thinks for a second, "Addy! Since when have you gotten, so big. Last time I saw you were a tiny little squirt."

Addy raises an eyebrow. "I'm only a couple of years younger than you."

"Wow!" Reed finally says. Sue smiles a little, hoping he was checking her out. "Fantastic! Material made from self-regulating unstable molecules." He grabs the suit from Ben's hands and begins to study it. Sue's smile drops. "I've been working on a formula for this."

Sue toughens up a little bit. "Great minds think a like." Reed doesn't even look over at her as he begins to examine the suit somemore. "Here you go, Ben." She smiles and holds out a flight suit.

"Thanks, sweetie," as he takes one.

Reed starts to unbutton his shirt, as Sue walks by, "Reed," she throws the flight suit at him and continues to walk on with Addy right behind her.

* * *

In issue #16 the "The" was dropped from the cover logo, becoming simiply _Fantastic Four

* * *

_

The space ship docks with the station and Victor speaks up as they head out, "ETA until cosmic event, nine hours."

"If you're good, maybe next time daddy will let you drive," Johnny speaks over to Ben.

"You keep talking and there won't be a next time," Ben states back through the corner of his mouth.

They were followed by Reed and Addy. Reed was telling Addy a few things to add, while she was writing them down on her new digital palm pilot. Reed catches the view from the window and stops and stares, Addy just smiles and continues on. Sue walks up next to Reed and says, "Long way from the projection booth at Hayden Planetarium, isn't it?"

Reed looks over at her, and she begins to walk away. "Yes. Yes, it is," He smiles.

Soon they all walk into the control center. "We can montior the cloud approach and observe the tests from here," Sue says as she indicates the space around them.

"Is it safe?" Ben asks as he begins to unzip his flight suit.

"The shields on the station should protect us," Reed replies.

"Should?" Ben questions, looking over at Reed.

"What's a matter, Ben, getting paranoid in your old age?" Victor responds as he walks a little towards them, then leans on the rail.

"Let's start loading those samples!" Reed exclaimes as he looks directly at Victor then glances over at Addy, when she comes walking over, already out of her flight suit and in just her blue one. "Get your suit ready, Ben." Reed looks over at Ben as he unzips his suit more.

Ben starts to walk away, when Victor says, "I see you're still doing all the heavy lifting." Ben stops and Reed just looks over at Victor. "Maybe you should have just stayed in the lab," Victor talks to Reed. Ben rushes back. "Field work, never suited you, maybe her," he indacates towards Addy, "never you."

"He does the talking, she does the details, and I do the walking," Ben speaks up, "Got it?"

"So, take a walk, Ben," Victor says it so calmly. Ben freezes, not believing what was just said. Addy's fist tightens up, starts to take a couple steps towards Victor, until Reed stops her. "Actually if you all excuse me, I need to borrow, Susan," Susan stops and looks up and over at Victor, "for a moment."

They all look over at her, then Ben looks at Reed, and Reed makes a 'what can I do' siginal. "Sure," Reed says, beginning to walk off, dragging Addy behind him.

* * *

Sue was annouced to be pregant in the _Fantastic Four Annual_ #5

* * *

Johnny Storm closed the back to Ben Grimm's space, causing it to air lock pressure. "Please, tell me your guy is not trying to rekindle things with my sister, again?"

"Of coarse, not. Strictly business," Ben says through the suit's communacator.

"Yes, well," Johnny press some buttons on Ben's suit, "he's eyes say differently don't they?"

"Hey," Ben grabs his hand, getting his attention, "two hearts got busted last time. Maybe she's not over it either?"

"Wow, Dr. Phil, that's deep." Johnny turns to grab the plants. "Let's think about that. You got Victor, more money than God, stud of the year," he clips the plants on to Ben, "and you got Reed, world's dumbest smart guy." They both step into the air lock and Johnny hands Ben the plants. "Worth less than a postage stamp. That's a real toss up."

"Don't trouble your tiny little mind."

Johnny smiles, "Don't wander off now, boy." Johnny walks out begins to press buttons on a command console to shut the air lock.

"Keep away from my cousin!" Ben shouts out before the door could close all the way. Johnny just salutes, then gives a double thumbs up. Ben sighes, and gives a half hearted one back. He turns to watch as the door to space opens up, he smiles at the sight that beholds him.

* * *

In 1968 Franklin Benjamin Richards was born in _Fantastic Four Annual #6

* * *

_

Addy paces back and forth, writing stuff on her palm pilot, talking up a storm. "Reed, you should have let me at him."

Reed does't even look up at his work, when he replies, "I can't let you do that. You should know better than that."

Addy continues to tap on her screen as well as pace. "You know how I feel about people insulting my family. No one, insults my family, but family. That guy, is not family!" Reed doesn't even answer as he continued with his work. "Reed, I can't get this to work out," Addy says as she holds out her palm pilot to Reed.

"Here, let me see it," He takes it from her, but before he could get to far in it, the screen near him, beeps. He looks at it and stands up, "That can't be right." He begins to type at the key board.

"The event threshold, in T minus nine minutes and forty-seven seconds." The station's voice rings out.

"That's impossiable!"

Addy grabs her palm pilot and looks at it. "No, that is possiable. That could be why I couldn't work out the simple equation."

"It should be seven hours!" Reed exclaims, looking at her. He could see her thoughts, swirling through her eyes. Without a word, she turns and runs down the corridor. Without a second thought, Reed was right behind her. Pretty soon, he shot right past. He could have swore she was mumbling something about going faster if she didn't have stupid heels on the foot part of the suit. He nears the doors and they slide open. He races towards the railing. "The cloud is accelerating!" Both Sue and Victor look up a Reed too see Addy run up next to him, trying to catch her breath, nodding. "We've got minutes until it hits, not hours." Sue goes over to the computer to confirm what Reed was saying. "Victor, that storm is deadly, we've got to abort."

"Get a grip, Reed," Victor just calmly says, looking at him, "we didn't come all this way to lose our nerve at the first glitch. Just close the sheilds."

Addy's grip tightens on the railing. "Ben is still out there," she states.

Victor just glances at her. "So, reel him in." He then turns back to Reed. "We came here to do a job, so let's do it, quickly."

Reed turns and takes off running down the corridor again. Sue then speaks up, "Victor, Reed is right. We have less than six minutes." Addy audiable sucks in her breath, turns, and takes off running down the same corridor as Reed.

Addy was a few seconds down the hall when she hears Reed say, "Ben you need to get inside, right now!"

She then heard the faint reply of Johnny asking, "What's going on?"

Over they COM Ben calmly replies, "I'm not done arranging your flowers, yet, Egghead."

"Ben, turn around!" Addy hoped that Ben would just listen, as she ran down what seemed like a never ending corridor.

"Guys, I'm not going to make it!"

"Ben, you got to jump!" Johnny states. "It's the only way!"

As Addy continued on, she could hear Reed and Johnny better, but soon lost sound of Victor and Sue. Then she heard a noise that stopped her in her tracks. The shields where being raised. Addy turns to look out the window to see them slowly start to raise. A growl escapes her throat, but she turns and continues on her way.

"Come on, Ben, you've got to get in!" Johnny exclaims.

"Okay, Johnny, get ready to close the portal," Reed says.

Addy turns the corner to see Ben slam into the air lock, then slides down. Then all of a sudden the storm seeps through the portal, causing her to trip over her own feet. She doesn't even attempt to stand up right a way, just keep moving forward. So, by the time the storm slams into her she was running on all fours. She then felt a second wave hit her, her hands and feet dug into the floor, trying to stop the backwards movement. By then she couldn't even hold on as the storm pushed at her again. Soon she was in the air, adjusting her body, every muscle working, just to get her to land on her feet.


	3. Just the First Signs of Change

Addy snorted as the doctor insisted running a couple more tests on her. She wasn't happy about it either, but she told him later. She had family she had to visit. She had heard she was the first to wake up, soon followed by Johnny, Reed, then Victor. She heard that Sue woke up, but she was pretty weak in bed. She was visiting Sue when the doctors caught up with her at the time. It seemed like it took her forever to get rid of them. When she did, she finally was able to get a chance to sit next to Ben's bedside for a while. The second day, she had wised up to their tricks and managed to sneak around them to accomplished what she wanted to get done. The third day, they wised up to her. They finally and deliberately cornered her demanded that she sit around long enough for the tests. They were quite surprised when she lashed out at them. They didn't know what to think, until Reed caught them doing it and explained it to them, that was her normal behavior. He finally got her to calm down, and promised if she takes the test, he'll do it too. So, finally Addy agreed to take the test. Finally on the forth day, she was heading towards Ben's room when Johnny comes runs out and a mirror slamming against the wall behind him.

"You may want to be careful, he woke up on the wrong side of the bed!" Johnny shoots back at Addy as he walks by.

"If it was the side you were on, yeah I'm betting." Johnny stops and looks back at her. She just smiles and continues on her way. When she got closer to the mirror, she carefully skitters around it, her being bare footed and all. Finally she got to turned the corner to see Ben sitting there breathing deeply in and out, trying to calm himself down. He stops and smiles when he sees Addy coming. Sitting down in the chair that Johnny just occuppied, she smiles. "How are you doing, Ben?"

"I'm fine. How are you doing?"

Addy sighes and shakes her head. "Ben, you could be half dead, and me without a scratch and you still worry about me. I'm fine, I'm healthy, and I'm okay."

"Sorry, kiddo, you know me. I have to protect my family."

Addy's eyes light up. "Oh, on that note, I have something for you." She pulls a thin, square object from her sweat pants and hands it to Ben. "I figure you would want it," she says when she smiles.

Ben looks at it and smiles at the picture of him and Deb. "How did you know where to find it?"

"They have all our stuff in our rooms. Your's is over there," she points towards the closest. "I kind of figure you would like it and I know where you put it, so one of the days I visited I went and grabbed it."

Ben looks at Addy and smiles, "Thanks, I guess I do need this."

Addy just smiles, then she glances at the time. "Oh, I have to go. I promised Reed I would look over some of the notes we brought back." She gets up and starts to head out, turning back she smiles, "I'll see you later."

"I must of been out for a while, she seemed a little relieved."

* * *

With issue #232 (July 1981) John Bryne took over as writer, penciler, and inker

* * *

After getting around, Addy goes outside with her laptop. She puts it down on one of the tables, opens it up, and begins to work on it. Sometime later, Reed comes out and begins to work with her. After some hard thoughts, Reed gets up and looks out over the edge, while Addy continues on with her laptop.

After a while Ben comes out and asks, "Hey, how long was I out?" As he claps his arm with Reed.

"Hey, three days," Reed smiles and replies. "Man I was worried about you. How you feeling?"

"Solid!" Ben states as Addy only glances up at them. "Uh, a little close one, huh?" Laughing he asks, "What was that about?"

With a confused laugh Reed replies, "I don't know. I really don't know."

"But we are working on it," Addy speaks up without looking up.

"We've been going over the figures, again and again, and they all add up."

"Except for that palm pilot I had on the station, but conveniently it got busted, so badly that you can't get anything from it," Addy says again, still typing away at the laptop.

"I just don't understand, maybe I should have aborted s..."

Ben interupts, "Reed, it was a freak of nature, you couldn't have possible predicted it."

"Yeah, I'm still going with the Chaos Therory with it," Addy inserts for the third time in a row.

Ben looks over at her, then back at Reed, "Let it go." Reed just sighes and looks down. Ben glances out over the view and gets an idea. "You know you live through something like this, really makes you appreciate you have the right woman in your life."

Addy glances up at this, wondering what was Ben going with this, but then a thought crossed her mind that he probably saw Sue down there.

"Yeah, you and Debbie are perfect."

"I'm not talking about Debbie." Ben glances down at Sue and Reed follows his eyes.

"What? Come on!" Reed turns to completely look at Sue. "She's got a good thing with Victor. He's smart, he's powerful, he's successful..."

"Maybe you should date him, then," Ben interupts.

"Ben, she ended up with the right guy. Things worked out for the best." Addy just shakes her head. Reed just pats Ben on the shoulder and walks away completely. Ben just looks at Addy and she raises an eyebrow.

"Do I have to do everything, myself?" Addy just tilts her head slightly, nods, then goes back to work.

* * *

Bryne modernization of the Invisible Girl into the Invisible Woman, with increased powers, making the most powerful member on the team

* * *

After working for a good part of the day, Addy decided she was going to walk around. She began to walk through the woods and was heading back to the complex, when a sudden urge to climb the tree came over her. Shruging, she figured why not, it was nothing new to her. She made it up to the top of the tree in record time. She crouched on the branch in amazement. "What happened?" She could never get this high in a tree, or that fast. Staring at her hands, she noticed that her finger nails turned into sharp retractable claws. She felt an extra weight at the end of her, that kept moving, counter the weight of her body that moved. She scampered down the tree and crouched on the lowest branch. He ears then picked up movement in the under brush. A few seconds later her eyes caught the rabbit making it's way towards her. She focused on the rabbit, as she could see that it got suddenly brighter. She crouched down even lower, then sprung upon it. She heard it squeak in surprise when she grabbed it. Addy could smell the fear off it. She carefully put it down and it took off like mad. Addy just couldn't believe that she just caught a rabbit. She took off running towards the compound, but instinct took over, as her hands hit the ground and soon she was running on all fours.

Addy got towards the door and went to go in when her reflection in it stopped her. She had a tan fur on her, her eyes were more cat like, her ears sat a little higher and were pointed, her teeth were more fang like, and she had a tail swishing behind her. She just stared at her her reflection, then with a thought she made it slowly disappear until just plain Addy was there. She shakes her head, jerks open the door and walks in. She grabs the nearest person she could and askes them where Reed is. The person points kindly to a caferteria, Addy thanks them, and takes off down that way.

Addy skids to a halt when she sees Reed and Sue, "Guys, we've got a problem!"

They stop and stare at her, there eyes getting large. She didn't think she changed again, so why were they staring like so. That was soon answered when a voice rang out behind her, "Hey, you guyes. Hey." Addy spins around to see Johnny standing there with nothing, but a pink parka around his bottom. "You are never going to believe what just happened to me." He stands there panting, "What?"

"What are you doing? To excited to tell someone you finally got laid, and forgot to get dressed?"

"No," Johnny scoffs, "but I can explain this."

* * *

In the '90s Bryne was succeeded by writer Steve Englehart

* * *

Soon the group of four where walking fast down the hall way, Addy watching Johnny snapping his fingers, catching them on fire.

"It has to be the cloud!" Sue exclaimed. "It's fundamentally altered our DNA."

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Reed says, trying to keep a calm. "We need a massive amount of evidence, before making that leap."

"Whoa!" Addy exclaims.

"Guys!" They turn to look at Addy, then at Johnny. "Look." Johnny and Addy move closer to Reed and Sue. Johnny holds up his thumb, a tall flame coming off of it. They stared as he snaps his fingers, the flame going out. He snaps it again, and the flame appears again. Snapping once more, he makes it disappear. "Now picture that, but everywhere!" Johnny indicates, waving his hand around his body. "It was everywhere!" They continued to stare at him. "What?!"

Sue looks over at Reed with a 'I told you so' face. His eyes just kind of glance over at her, not wanting to see that face. "The cloud has fundamentally altered our DNA."

Johnny laughs with excitement. "Cool!" They continued down the hall. "You know what, guys, I think I was flying."

"Flying? You were on fire and flying?" Addy askes.

"Yeah, yeah."

"We need to find Ben," Reed just states, trying to get them to think of something more important.

Reed soon rounded the corner, closely followed by Addy. Sue was behind the both of them, and Johnny was behind her, snapping his fingers again. "Cut out Johnny," she says, tightening her voice.

"Getting the hang of it," he says calmly, continueing it.

"Johnny."

By this time Addy and Reed were pounding on the door, trying to get Ben's attention. "Hey, Ben, it's Reed."

"Stop." Sue turned around and looked straight at Johnny.

The flame disappears. "Alright."

"Alright?"

"Yeah, yes."

"God!"

"God."

"What's wrong with you?!" Sue grinds.

"What?"

Reed speaks over them both, "Sue you got the code?"

She walks over to the key pad next to the door and starts to push at some buttons. Addy just keeps pounding and watching through the window. Doing anything to get Ben's attention. They all stop to try and look through the tiny window when they hear a slamming noise against the floor. "Ben!" Addy screams.

"You alright, Ben?" Reed trys to ask through the door.

Sue goes back to pushing the buttons, as Johnny turns down the hall yelling, "Hey, does somebody have keys to this doors?" Sue continued her hardest and Reed looks down. "Anybody?" Reed kneels down next to the door. "Break the glass, it can't be that thick."

Everyone stops, to stare as Reed's arm stretches out, sliding his fingers under the very low door. They watched as his hand stretched up and slowly went for the lock. He unlocks the door, they stood there, continueing to stare as his arm slowly goes back to normal. He looks at them, not believing what happened, did. "That's gross," Johnny just states.

They here a crash, then a crumbling noise. "Ben!" Addy screams again. She pushes her way into his room. They all stopped when the noticed the wall with windows had a big hole in it.

"Ben?" Reed asks, hoping that he didn't cause the hole.

"Look!" Johnny points towards the hole and starts to shuffle fastly over too it. "Looklooklook!" They noticed a large dark figure running through the woods, away from the complex. "What is that thing?"

"That's Ben." Addy says under her breath.

"What's going on?" Victor's voice comes from behind them. They all turn around to see him standing there. "What happened to you?" He asks Sue.

"Victor, are you feeling alright?" Sue questions.

"I'm fine, just a few scraps, that's all."

Reed was talking with Addy, she was nodding saying a few things. "Ben, did this. He's had some kind of reaction, to exposer from the cloud."

Victor's mouth gaps open a little as he looks over and out the hole. "We, all have different symptoms," Sue trys to explain.

"Symptoms?"

"Victor, um, I should have..."

"Just find him!" Victor just turns and walks out of the room. Sue was left standing there, surprised at his snappishness.

"Anybody, got any ideas where the big guy is going?" Johnny asks looking out the hole.

Reed looks down and notices the picture of Ben and Deb. "He's going home."


	4. Beginnings of Heroes

Sue, Johnny, and Reed were cowarded in a back seat of a taxi, while Addy sat in the front seat pressed against the door, distancing herself from the cab driver. They head towards the bridge, when traffic stops all of a sudden. Without stopping to think, Addy gets out of the taxi, soon followed by Reed, Sue, and Johnny. They all look at each other, then at Addy as she stares straight ahead, trying to see something. She naturally twitchs her ears up trying to hear something as well. Finally they hear a faint, "Fine!" and she takes off running, being closely followed behind.

When Reed, Sue, and Johnny finally caught up to her, she was stuck near the police barricade. She was a little tense being surrounded by people, but she was busy looking for a way around. Her insticts told her somewhere high, she could watch and make better judgement. Reed walks up and puts his hand on her shoulder.

"What'll do now?" Sue asks.

"We're not going to get past guys," Reed explains, hoping that Addy was paying attention. "But, you could!" He turns towards Sue.

Finally after a little debating, Sue concentrates on turning invisiable and finely she starts too.

"Sue, your clothes," Reed hiss over towards her, "lose them."

"Oh, right."

"This is, so wrong," Johnny says under his breath towards Reed.

Addy turns and notices that everybody was following Sue's every move. So, she quietly slips down and around the barricade. Takes off running down the street. She stops dead, when she hears a gun fire, and it ricocheting off of something. Then she starts running again. She stops and notices Sue, climbing on top of a car. "Ben, Ben!"

Addy turns to look when she hears a couple of loud steps and sees a large orange rocky person come around a truck. The group makes a collective gasp, when they realised it was Ben. She could hear the coward pointing and gasping at Ben. She turned up to look at them, when she notices a little old lady getting shoved closer and closer over the edge. She felt herself changing again. She watched as the old lady was finally shoved over the edge. Instincts flew in and she took command. She ran around a couple of cars, easily, and jumps into the air. Catching the old lady, Addy continues upward, with her in her arms. She lightly lands on one of the beams and runs across it to deposit the lady with the rest of the crowd. She hears an explosion. A burst of hot air throws her up and into the air. Her thoughts begin to scream at her. 'What about the people?' Her instinct, though tells her to right herself, so she could land on her feet. She twist and she turns until her feet were under her again, when she notices that the fire was being contained in a blueish-transparent bubble. As she slowly begins to fall downwards she notices the bubble condense and push out the fire. By the time she lands her feet on the pavement, it was gone. She turns to watch as Ben, starts to pull a fire truck from the edge of bridge. She runs over to him, finally reaches him, when he gets it up. "Ben!" He turns to look at her and she runs up to hug him.

"Addy, is that you?" he's gravelly voice asks.

Addy blinks, wondering why he would ask that, when a thought flew through her head. She was still cat like. "Yeah."

He was breathing hard, but he hugged her back finally. They stopped and listened as the sound of feet surrounded them, and the clicking of guns followed. "This is the police," a voice over a bull horn sounds, "get down on the ground!"

A person from the crowd screams out, "Don't shoot, they're heroes!"

"Get down on the ground, now!" The voice cuts out over the lady's.

Ben pulls Addy a little closer, hoping to protect her if it came down to it. The crowds' voices cryed out for them, and soon began to clap. A couple of the fire fighters made the cops put their guns down. Reed, Johnny, and Sue tried to get near, but were stopped by the police. "Ben!" Reed calls out, to get his attention.

Ben looks around to see all the people clapping for them, praising what they had done. Addy finally pulls away from him and goes over to the police holding the other three at bay, trying to get them to let them in. Ben finally gets to turn and look around. He's sight lands on a blond, but he continues to turn, when it clicks who it was. He turns back and sees Debbie standing there. Ben steps towards her, but she shrinks back. Shaking her head she pulls the engagement ring from her finger and sets it down on the ground, carefully. Debbie turns, pushes herself through the crowd, and runs away. Ben rushes over there, hoping to catch her, but he already knew he wouldn't be able too. He stops in front of the ring, Reed watching the whole time, bends down to try and pick it up. His large rocky fingers, scrapes at the aspalt to pick up the ring, but he just can't seem to get a hold of it. Johnny, Sue, and Addy stand there, sadly watching Ben.

A hand reaches down, picks up the ring, and places it in Ben's hand. Ben looks at the ring, then looks up at Reed. Slowly he stands up, not knowing what to say or do. "I swear, to you, I'll do everything in my power, until there is not a breath left in me. You're going to be Ben, again!" Ben just slightly nods, still shock over what had just happened to him.

Soon, police officers escort them to a command tent they had set up. Some paramedics wandered in to do some testing on a few of them, seeing if they were okay. Ben sat there, carefully pushing Debbie's ring around on the palm of his hand. "I told you I felt fine." Sue says quietly to one of the medics. Reed stood there watching it all, trying to take it all in. Addy sat, crouched in a corner, giving the evil cat eye, and flipping her tail about, scaring the medics away from her.

"Where are your ears?" Johnny asks without a second thought, to Ben. He just stops and death glares over at Johnny. Johnny, just raises his eyebrows.

"Sir," the fire chief walks in towards Reed, "there are some folks outside, that want to talk to you."

Reed's mouth gapes open a little and his eyes dart back and forth. He then looks straight at the guy and says, "We're not going public with this. We're scientists, not celebrities."

"It's to late, son. Look!" He goes over to the television in the tent and turns it on. Everyone gets up to look at the images that flicker across the screen. "See that?" Everyone gapes at the images flashing of the five of them. "That's what they're calling you. The Fantastic Five!"

"Cool!" Johnny turns to walk out of the tent.

"No, wait! Where are you going?" Sue questions like an older sister.

"I'm going to go talk to them," Johnny points out the tent with his thumb.

"No way, no how," Addy jumps in.

"We should think this through," Sue adds in.

"That's great," Johnny motions with his hands around the tent. "Brain storm!" Johnny turns and walks out.

Ben sighs, Reed and Sue look at each other, and Addy slaps her forhead with her hand. Addy gets up to take off after him, as she does she could feel herself shift back into old self. "Johnny, get back here! Johnny!"

She finally catches up with him, (with Reed and Sue, then followed by Ben behind her) he puts his hands up in the air to get the attention of the news people. "Settle down!" He turns back to look at the other four, as they come up next to him. "Do you believe this?"

Addy slinks over and kind of hides behind Ben as more cameras begins to flash. "Which one of you is the leader?" The fire chief asks.

"That would be me," Johnny trys to say in an offical tone.

The fire chief takes one look at him and laughes, "No, seriously?" Reed steps up and kind of nods. "Okay, son, you're on."

Reed steps forward a little more. The cameras begins to flash even more and questions flow out, like crazy. "Uh," Reed smiles a little, "during our recent mission to the Von Doom space station, we were exposed to, yet, unidenfended radioactive energy."

"What happened on the bridge?"

"How can you stretch?"

"Were you really on fire?"

"Is it true that you can fly?"

Johnny speaks up about that question. "Yeah, I'm working on it. It's actually really difficult."

"Actually," Sue steps up, trying to get Johnny to shut up. "We do not know much more, than you do, at this point. We'll be going directly to our lab, to diagnose our symptoms."

"Symptoms? Is this some kind of diease?" a reporter asks off camera.

"No! Nonononono! It's not a diease!" Sue looks at Johnny and gives a slight head shake, trying to tell him to shut up. "If having special powers is a diease, then yeah, we got it bad."

"Excuse me, that 'thing' doesn't look, so fantastic."

Ben moves forwards a little more, but Addy steps in front of him. "Ben Grimm is a genuine American hero," she hiss out loudly.

"What she means is," Johnny starts up again as he puts his arms around Ben's and Reed's shoulders, "every team needs a mascot." Addy shoots back a look of disgust and anger.

The crowd laughes out at his little comment. "Johnny!" Sue says under her breath towards him.

"A new day is dawning. The day, of the Fantastic Five!"

Soon the crowd started all clammering around at once. Reed shrugs Johnny's arm off his shoulder and steps forward. "Look! Look! We went up to space, to find a way to understand DNA, cure dieases, save lifes. Well, now it's our DNA, our diease, our lives on the line. Thank you! No more questions."

The crowd starts to beg for more, but Reed turns around to walk away. Right behind him followed Sue, then Ben and Addy. When Addy realised that Johnny wasn't coming she turns around, grabs him by his wrist, and drags him way.


	5. Cabin Fever is Bad

Johnny gets out of the police car that escorted them to the Baxter building. Cameras flash off his sunglasses, as he looks around at the crowd that gathered to watch them. Sue and Reed get out on the other side, look around at all the people. A police officer opens the door to the back of a paddy wagon and Addy hops out. The man steps back as Ben steps out, making the paddy wagon bounce back into place. The police try and push the crowd back as Reed and Sue enters the building. "Is all that for you, Dr. Richards?" a man asks.

"I'm afraid so," Reed says, wearly lifting his hands, as if exhausted.

Johnny, outside, lifts his hands up. He slowly turns around, trying to give the people the most of himself. Ben walks up next to him, with Addy slinking around him and towards the doors quickly as possible. "Come on, Ben, smile. They wanna like ya, Ben," Johnny says as he heads for the door. "Say, hi." He points to a group of kids near the doors.

Ben stops and looks at them, the kids and the group around them gasp and step back. "Uh, don't do drugs," he says as he points at them.

The kids stand there, shocked, and the adults around them begin to clap and cheer. Finally Ben walks into the building and gives a nod to Jimmy. Jimmy nods back, then his eyes gets wide when he realised what was under the coat and hat.

"Welcome back to the Baxter, Dr. Richards," a gray haired mailman says, as he walks up to Reed. "I got the usual." The mail man begins to dig into his mail bag, pulls out a stack of mail, and hands it too Reed. "Good to have you back, sir."

"Thanks, Willie," Reed replies as Willie walks away. He looks up at Sue, "We had a tough year."

"Yeah, like nine straight!" Ben exclaims as he walks up and joins Reed in the elevator.

They all step into the elevator, and it begins to groan. The doors close and Sue pushes a button. The elevator gives a little jerk and everyone looks. "Either, we're moving really fast, or not at all," Johnny says. As a response the elevator buzzes and the 'Exceeds Maximum Weight' light comes on.

They all look at Ben, and he sighes. "I'll take the stairs."

"Wait, I'll go with you!" Addy exclaims as she follows him out.

"You know, you could have taken the elevator," Ben says.

"No way, I was going to let you walk up those stairs alone."

When they finally made it to the floor they wanted, the lights begin to flicker. "I just want to understand it!" a voice rings out. "FAST!"

Ben and Addy finally got in and notices Reed with Victor. "There a problem?" Ben questions.

Victor looks over at Ben and Addy. Ben had the look of what was going on and Addy just glared. "No," Victor says wearily, "no problem Ben." The elevator dings behind Victor and the door opens. "Just pay your damn electric bill and get to work on the cure." Victor quietly says to Reed. Victor glances over one more time to see Addy narrow her eyes considerablity. He knew she heard him. Victor walks over to the elevatior and steps in. Pressing the button the doors close and it begins to go down.

"I really hate that guy," Addy says as she goes over and picks up a couple of bills on the table.

* * *

In 1994 a movie was made with B-Movie Director/Producer Roger Corman. It was never released and it can only be seen through bootleg copies.

* * *

Johnny stood in a small containment unit and lights his hand on fire. He flings he hand down and the rest of his body catches. "Whoa!"

Reed, Sue, and Addy stood in the observation room watching through all the monitors. "He's heating up from his core," Reed observes.

"And his vitals are completely normal," Sue responds.

Addy takes a few notes. "He's always been a hot head."

* * *

1

Addy stares at screen with Ben's information. "If we're going to identify the souce of the mutantion, we need to isolate your recumbent DNA, so we can active positional genomes," Reed explains.

Ben looks over at Sue. "Huh?"

Without looking she replies, "We have to do physical to see what got zapped."

"Oh, why didn't you just say so?" Ben just questions over to Reed.

Addy taps on the keyboard to activate the machine. The image switches to from the front view of Ben, to the inside view. She taps the keyboard a few more times and the view switches to what appears to be a rocky heart.

"His internal organs are completely solid," Reed says as he looks at the image.

They gape at the image a little more, then turn and look at Ben. "How bad is it? You know I use to smoke."

* * *

2

Reed and Sue stare at Addy. Addy just looks back and forth between the two of them. "Fine!" she says as she throws her hands up in the air. She shifts in to her feline form and stands there for a second. She grabs the hem of her pants and starts to pull them down a little.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Reed questions.

"Pulling my pants down far enough to let my tail out, duh."

"Isn't that kind of a little low?" Sue questions, her eyes hardening a little.

"Believe me, all the important stuff is covered. Not to mention, I don't even like my pants down that low."

* * *

3

Addy yawned as she stared at the screen with Sue's information on it.

"It's not invisiablity, per say," Reed starts up.

"It's not?" Addy questions, half heartedly.

"No," Reed says, then he turns towards Sue.

Addy stands up and stretches. "I'm out of here, I need a nap."

Sue watches her leave and Reed continues. "You should be able to bend light around other objects, even people. If you could control your emotional state, better."

Sue blinks, angerly. "Excuse me?"

"I'm saying if you had a little more self control, you could locate the trigger." Reed slowly beings to swing his chair back and forth. "Can you remember your exact emotions, on the bridge?"

"Anger," Sue begins to huff, "rage," she gives Reed an evil eye, "frustration."

"Okay, is there anyway to duplicate that feeling? Some memory or.."

Sue just tilts her head at Reed, "I'm sure I can come up with something."

* * *

4

"You feel anything?" Sue questions as she hits the rubber reflex hammer against Ben's knee.

"Nope," Ben says.

"Here, use this!" Addy exclaims as she tosses a real hammer towards Reed.

Catching it he says, "Okay." He knocks it against Ben's knee. Ben's leg shoots up, kicking a chair, causing it to fly across the large room and smashing against the wall on the next story up.

* * *

5

"Are you going to come down from there?" Reed askes as he looks up at Addy, perched on a beam.

"No, I kind of like it up here."

Sue just looks at him and writes some notes down. "You just had to ask her how high she could jump, didn't you?" Sue quitely askes Reed.

Ben comes stomping in and looks up at Addy, then at Reed. "Having some cat problems?"

"She doesn't want to come down," Reed sighes as he scratches his head.

Ben walks closer to the position under Addy and calls up, "Are you going to come down, or am I going to have to shake the whole building to get you to come down."

Addy blinks, then sighes. She paces down the beam, then just leaps off. She lands carefully on her feet, stands up, and brushes some dust off herself. "What?" she askes when she sees them gaping at her.

* * *

6

Addy stares at the screen, showing Johnny's temperature going up. She glances out the window and grabs her tinted goggles, putting them over her eyes.

"He's hotter, than I anticipated," Reed says to the two women in the booth with him. "Okay, Johnny, back it down!" Reed demands over the intercom.

Johnny shakes his head. "I can go hotter!"

"Johnny, just back it down," Sue says.

Johnny clinches his fist and flares up hotter. "Uh, guys, he's starting to melt the equipment," Addy states as she taps madly on the keyboard, trying to save as much information as she could. On the screen Addy could see as Johnny's feet slowly starting to lift off the floor.

"Johnny, back it down, right now!" Reed screams out.

"Johnny!" Sue exclaims.

Reed slams down on a button, that causes foam to shoot out, and coat Johnny. They walk out of the observation, hearing Johnny laugh. "Buzz kills." They look to see the containment unit melted completely, gone in the center of the sides. "You guys are cramping my style."

"What style?" Addy shoots back as she pulls the goggles to the top of her head.

Sue ingores Addy's comment and says, "Johnny, you were at 4,000 Kelvin." He stares at her, questions written all over his face. "Any hotter and you would be approaching super nova."

"Sweet!"

"No, you idiot! Bad!" Addy exclaims.

Sue sighes. "That's the tempture of the sun."

Reed steps in to explain the problem with that. "Not only could you kill yourself, you could set fire to earth's atmosphere and destroy all human life as we know it."

"Got it!" He gives a foamy thumbs-up sign. "Super nova, bad!"

* * *

7

Sue sat on her stool, slowly turning invisiable. "How's that coming?" Reed askes as he looks up at Sue through the machine.

She looks down at herself the jerks, throwing a force out, at Reed, knocking him down. "I'm so, sorry!" She exclaims as he helps him up. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"I, uh, probably thought that was some form of laten hostility." Soon Sue and Reed begin to bob up and down, picking up all the information that was knocked over.

"What would give me that, idea?" Sue begins to walk a way when Reed stops her, by saying something. "I mean, you broke up with me, right?"

Sue puts a tight smile on her face. "Are you kidding?"

"No, I distinctly remember you, walking out my door, ergo..."

"I was ready for the next step, you weren't, ergo, I walk!"

"I think it was a little more complicated than that," Reed states by holding up a finger really quick.

"I just wanted to share an apartment. What was, so complicated than that?"

"There were a lot of variables to consider."

"No, there weren't!" Sue states as she moved a little closer. "There was you and me. There were no variables, no math. It was actually the simplest thing in the world, but like always Reed, your head got in the way."

"No, it didn't."

"Then, what was it?" Reed closes his mouth and looks over at Sue. "Did you feel anything when I left?" Reed swallows hard as he continues to look at her. "Do you feel anything right now?"

Reed takes a breath to say something, when Johnny walks in saying, "Hey, guys!" They turn to look at him. He stands there, with burnt holes in his shirt. "I think we have a serious problem."

* * *

Alicia Masters was introduces in _The Fantastic Four #8_, along with her supervillian step-father, The Puppet Master

* * *

"Our uniforms were exposed to the storm, like us," Reed explains to the group in the living room. "So, it can transform like us." He indicates to everyone as he talks, "Becoming invisiable, changing size on demand, and impervious to flame."

Johnny smiles as he feels his suit. Ben just laughes, "You guys look like an Eighties rock band."

Sue plays around with Ben's suit in her hands. "You know, Ben, this material stretches. I'm sure I can figure out a way to make it fit."

"Uh, da duh, I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that."

"Uh, Sue, can you alter mine, please," Addy speaks up.

"How?"

"Sleevless, it feels constricting and the suit ending mid-shin. Oh, and a hole for my tail." Addy brightens.

Sue nods, knowing that Addy can't sew stuff like that.

"I love these costumes!" Johnny exclaims. "They're missing something, right? Like spikes or..."

Reed turns to Johnny and interupts him. "They're not costumes."

"You can't use your powers in public, Johnny," Sue informs him.

"You guys are worst than NASA."

"Johnny!" Sue exclaims.

"Maybe it's missing a utility belt," Ben chuckles into his metal glass.

* * *

Franklin Richards is considered an Omega-Level mutant

* * *

Ben squeezes a whole bag of oranges, getting the juice to collect in a glass bowl. He carefully picks up the bowl in both of his hands and starts to get it towards his mouth, when Johnny walks by and grabs it from him. "Alright, I'm here, let's make this quick. I've got a lot of places I've got to go today." He stops and gives off a laugh. "Oh, wait. I don't go anywhere."

Reed sighes and says, "Johnny, it's imperative we stay inside for the foreseeable of the procedure."

Ben trys to pick up his fork, but keeps fumbling around with it. Addy reaches over and picks it up, handing it to him.

"I know, I know that, Reed!" Johnny exclaims. "When you said that about last time," Johnny points towards his head, "my brain hurt a week."

"Johnny, its to dangerous for you to be in public," Sue says from her news paper.

"You've been saying that for years," Johnny says like it was nothing.

"Probably because it's true," Addy says between bites of her food.

"What worries me is that our powers are evolving!" Reed exclaims.

"I know, I know!" Johnny wipes his hands with a paper towel. "I'm so close to flying guys, I can taste it." Johnny throws the crumpled paper towel on the counter where it catches on fire.

Sue just laughes, "You can't fly."

"Yet," Johnny tries to say offically.

"Johnny, can you put that napkin out," Sue indicates towards the flaming paper towel.

"Oh, jesus!" He starts to smack down on it, trying to smother it, but the flames just get larger. Addy gets up, grabs the spray hose from the sink, and sprays the fire out.

"So, what's going on, Reed?" Ben askes, with a piece of fruit on his fork, near his mouth. "How are you going to cure us?"

Reed picks up a diagram and holds it up for everyone to see. "I'm going to build a machine, to recreate the storm."

Addy grabs the orange juice bowl, sets it in front of Ben, and sits back down.

"The cosmic rays will travel from this generator," Reed says as he indicates from one part of the diagram and moves over to another part, "to this chamber."

"What, no pop-ups?" Johnny questions.

"If I can reverse the wave signal," Reed ingores Johnny.

"It'll will return us back to normal," Ben tacks on there. Reed nods to that statement. "Huh." Ben goes and takes a bite of the fruit and crunches down.

"Right, so what are the risks?" Sue askes as she flips through the diagram's information.

"Even a small miscalculation could increase our symptoms expansionary, or pehapes even kill us."

Ben holds up his fork and notices no prongs on the end of it.

"Now, dyeing," Johnny starts, "that's bad, right?" They all just look at him. "I say we just let sleeping dogs, lye, guys." He grabs a chair, turns it around and stradles it.

"So, how long is this contraption is up and running?" Ben askes.

"I don't know, it's hard to say."

"How long, Reed?"

"I don't know! I..."

"You don't know!" Ben exclaims as he stands up.

"You don't want this to get worse!"

"Worse, than that," Johnny laughes, but quickly shuts up when Addy slugs him in his arm.

"Guys, look," Sue starts to get there attention. "We're going to be stuck here for a while, so let's just try and get along." Ben just gives a stoney glare over at Johnny.

* * *

Franklin's full name is Franklin Benjamin Richards

* * *

1

Johnny sprays shaving cream into one of Ben's hands and trys to tickle him, on the face, with the feather part of the feather duster. Smiling he stops to look at Ben's hand, to notice that he doesn't twitch at all.

* * *

2

Reed, walking down the hall, in his pajamas, goes to a door and opens it. "Oh!" He sees Sue go invisiable and cover herself with her towel.

"You could knock!"

Reed stands there for a second, not knowing what to do, then back peddles out quickly. "Sorry!" He closes the door. He stands there for a second, thinking what did he see.

* * *

3

Johnny calmly walks up to Addy as she paces the room thinking of something. He grabs her close, dips her down, gives her a passionate like kiss, stands her back up, and takes off running as she begins to throw things at him.

* * *

4

Reed sitts in his lab, in his uniform and lab coat. Sketching like crazy on a paper, try to get the image out of his head.

* * *

5

Johnny smiles as he runs the wooden handle of the feather duster, along Ben's face. He sighes in frustation when Ben picks up his non-shaving cream hand and waves it a little.

* * *

6

Reed looks in the mirrior, grabs a piece of his face, and pulls it out to shave down it.

* * *

7

Addy, in her feline form, crouches on the beam in the dark hallway. Johnny goes walking under her, and she jumps, landing on his shoulders. He starts to scream, and she jumps off his shoulders before he could flame her.

* * *

8

Sitting in his lab, Reed does one last detail to his sketch of his new schematics to the machine.

* * *

9

Reeds arm stretches out from one door, across the hall. His hand opens the door and reaches in. Johnny watches as he's hand come out, holding a roll of toilet paper. Johnny smiles and continues on his way.

* * *

10

Sue stares at Addy in her feline form. Sighing, Addy starts running full speed towards Sue. She jumps into the air to attack her, when she smacks hard against a force field. Picking herself off the floor she wanders over to her spot and glares at Sue as she takes another bite of ice cream.

* * *

11

Smiling, Johnny tryes to run the wooden handle down Ben's face again. Ben's shaving cream hand, flys up and makes a gooey smack in his face. Johnny tryes to hold in his laughter as he raises his arms up in trumpet, before he takes off running. Ben pulls his hand from his face and screams, "JOHNNY!"

* * *

Johnny's full name is Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm

* * *

Addy laided curled up in a chair, in the living room, sleeping. Johnny walks in, holding a pan of popcorn that started popping in his hand. He walks over to the couch and sits down, watching a Moto-X sports on the television. Staring at the screen, chewing on a piece of popcorn he says, "I've gotta get out of here." Putting the popcorn down he gets up to leave, but stops when he walks by a closest. Looking at his uniform, he grabs it. He goes to put it on and makes his way down to his car.

Sometime later, Addy was awaken by the smell of popcorn. She opens her eyes and sees the pan and a bottle of water sitting there. Figuring Johnny had to go to the bathroom or something she gets up and starts to eat at the popcorn. She reaches for the remote, as if to change it, when something catches her eye. Johnny standing on screen, goes and pulls the moto-x suit off revealing his blue suit underneath. "Guys!" Addy screams out, trying to get one of the other three to see this. He holds up his glove hands to show off for the crowd and the crowd cheers. Ben, Reed, and Sue walk into the room to see what Addy was yelling for. "Look!" she exclaims as she points to the screen.

"He didn't," Sue says as she places her hand on her hips.

"Oh, yes he did," Ben replies. "Flame boy never listens."

"What did he do to his uniform?" Sue asks as she looks at the television screen.

"Samething that Reed did to his," Addy says when she notices Reed pulling back is lab coat to reveal the same number five insignia on his.

They all look over at Reed, but instantly look back at the television when a lady asks Johnny, "Johnny, I've gotta ask you about this outfit." She holds the mike closer to his mouth.

Johnny looks into the camera and says, "Yeah, it's sort of Armonie meets Astronaut."

"So, what are your superhero names?"

"They call me the Human Torch. Ladies call me Torch." The crowd laughes and ohs at that statement.

"What about the rest of the team?"

A picture of Sue comes up on the big screen. "That's the Invisible Girl."

"Girl?" Sue sneers out.

"What about your leader, Reed Richards? I hear you call him, Mr. Fantastic."

"Could have been worse," Ben speaks up.

"Leader, thats a strong word," Johnny could be heard on the television.

"I guess," Reed kind of sighes.

"Is it true what they say about him? That he can expand any part of his anatomy?"

Johnny smiles right at the camera, almost laughing. "Well, I always find him to be a little limp." Reed's eyes get very wide as he just stares at the image of Johnny.

"And what about her?" As an image of Addy comes on screen.

"She is, wow." Johnny makes kind of a face as if he didn't know what to say about her. "She's... Feline."

Addy narrows her eyes dangerously and Ben grinds his teeth a little. "I'm going to kill him!" Ben states just as dangerously.

"What is that?" as the image of Ben appears, "What do you call that thing?"

"That's it. The Thing!" Johnny illustrates with his hand as he moves it. Ben jerks his head back, surprised. "You think that's bad, you should have seen him before."

"Okay, now I'm going to go kill him," Addy states.

They all turn and start heading out the door. By the time they got to the enterance of where Johnny was, he was walking out, with one girl on each arm. "There he is!" Sue points out towards him, as she, Reed, and Addy walked over towards him.

Ben stops when he sees Johnny's car sitting there. He heads over to it, getting a bright idea.

"Johnny!" Sue walks up to him, getting his attention.

"Can we talk about this later, guys."

"No, we can not talk about this later," Sue states.

"Yes, we can, at home."

"What is wrong with you?"

"Where's my ride?" Johnny askes as he looks out. He was answered as a giant red ball flys out and lands in front of him. He stands there, openned mouth, and clicks the unlock button on his keychain, making the red ball beep back. He just stands there, until a licence plate hits him in the head. Turning he looks to see Ben standing there. "You think that's funny, Pebbles?!" Johnny screams as he steps out on to the street, squaring off with Ben.

"Johnny!" Sue steps in front of him.

"What?!"

"You gave us names? You don't think. Now, you're the face of the Fantastic Five?"

"A face that's about to be broken!" Ben exclaims as he walks right up in front of Johnny.

"And skinless!" Addy hisses.

Reed steps in, trying to break it up. "Look, this isn't permanent, Johnny. We have to be careful until we are normal again."

"What if I don't want to be normal!" Johnny screams in Reed's face. Addy steps back, realising that what Johnny said, struck a deep chord in her. "I didn't turn into a monster." Johnny indicates towards Ben.

Ben swings back a fist, about to punch Johnny. He stops short in front of Johnny, but Johnny doesn't even flinch. Ben huffs a little, then turns to walk away.

"Johnny, say you're sorry!" Sue grits out her teeth.

A flame shoots out and slams in the back of Ben's head. Ben turns around and points to his head. "Did you just..." He was interupted by another flame that goes soaring and slams in Ben's face.

"That's it Tinkerbell!" Ben screams.

"No, Ben," Reed trys to say, but was drowned out by Ben's next words.

"You want to fly?" He goes to take a swing. Reed jumps in the way and Ben's fist indents Reed. The hit, connects with Johnny, anyways. "Then, fly!"

Johnny flys back and smacks into a Burger King flame broiled whopper ad. Flames shoot off him and adds to the flame broiled effect. Johnny pulls himself off the sign and calmly drops down on the ground.

"Wait a minute, guys," Sue says, trying to get them to settle.

"Ben, don't do this." Addy says, trying to get Ben's attention.

Johnny angerly walks towards Ben. "Let's see if we can get blood from a stone."

"Johnny," Sue trys to distrack Johnny.

"Let's see!" Ben growls. "Bring it, burn out!"

"You two need a time out!" Sue screams as she steps between them. One hand pushes Johnny in the chest, another creates a force field and pushes Ben back.

Ben growls, turns, and walks away. "Yeah, talk to block head. He started it!" Johnny hollors to Ben's back.

"I don't care!" Sue points at Johnny like a bad child. "Damn it, Johnny!" She turns around and follows after Ben. "Ben, wait!"

Johnny turns around and sees Reed and Addy stareing at him. "What?!" He continues to walk around his car, then kicks it.

"You need to learn to control yourself," Reed trys to calmly talking to him. "Think before you act."

"Yeah, but see, that's your problem," Johnny shoots back, "you always think, you never act. What if we got this powers for a reason. What if it was for a higher calling?"

"A higher calling, getting girls and making money?"

"Is there any higher?" Johnny askes.

"A lot," Addy puts in. They turn to look at her and she stares Johnny down. "Most people consider that to be very shallow," she states. They look at her, and she just turns and walks away.

Sighing Johnny looks at Reed. "You know what Reed, this is who we are. Accept it." Johnny turns to watch Addy walk away, then he gets a thought. "Or better yet," he turns to look at Reed, "enjoy it!" He then turns and walks into the coward of people.

* * *

The Human Torch's power is limited by the amount of oxygen is in enviroment.

* * *

Addy finally shuffled her way back to the Baxter building. As she came in she notices Ben slamming Johnny against the wall. He grabs something with his other hand and slams it against the wall, next to Johnny's head. "Uh, that was the prototype!" Johnny exclaims as Ben let's him go.

Addy walks up and askes, "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Ben growls as he turns and walks away.

Addy sighes, and steps into an elevator, going back up. As the doors close she hears Sue yell out into the lobby, "Ben!"

Addy finally makes it to the top floor and see Reed pushing some buttons that connects to the machine. Reed stops, worried about the fact, that she might know what he was about to do. She just glances up at Reed, nods her head, and quietly says, "Hey."

Reed carefully pretends to kind of notice and gives a half attention wave. Once he hears her door to her room slam shut, he gives a sigh of relief.

Addy shuffles across her room, wearily taking off her shirt, shoes, socks, and jeans. Underneath that she wore her blue uniform. To tired to take it off and to put on a pair of PJs, she shuffles over to her bed. Crashing on to the mattress, she pulls her bed covers up, and closes her eyes. Her eyes snap open when a loud sound of the machine starts to run, but she just mutter, turns over, and trys to go back to sleep.


	6. The Final Showdown

A few minutes later, the machine woke Addy up again. She sits up and blinks. She had gotten use to the sound of it by now, why would it wake her up. After a minute or two, it dawns on her. It was louder. Louder ment a few things. One, Reed screwed something up badly or two, Reed got it to work somehow. Standing up, Addy heads for the door, not even bothering to put her clothes back over her uniform. She makes her way towards the central room, when she hears, "What did you do?"

"Exactly what I said I would," she hears Victor reply. "Build a better, stronger, being and outsmarted the great Reed Richards."

She feels herself shifting again, in her Feline form, carefully and quietly she begins to sneak down the hall towards the second tier that overlooked the room. Her ears twitch a little forwards when she hears Reed say, "If you exposed yourself to the storm, you're indangering your life! You need help!"

"You've always know best."

By this time Addy manages to get to the second tier and looks down on Victor. Reed sees her, but trys not to let Victor know she was there, causing him to let go of some of his strength that was holding him together.

"So, tell me. What happens when you super heat rubber?" Victor asks. Reed's eyes gets wide and he shakes his head. Victor shoots a blast of lightning out towards him. Reed stretches out of the way, and collapes on his knees for a second, in weakness. He then gets up and starts to run around the tier, hoping to get to Addy, hoping to protect or to stop her before she could do anything. Victor fires off another blast and it connects with Reed. He screams in pain and goes flying out the window.

Addy growls, leaps up on the railing, and perches on it. Victor hears her and turns a little towards the noise. He doesn't even try to look for her and calls out, "Here, kitty kitty kitty!"

Hissing, she leaps through the air and lands on his shoulders. He grabs her and pulls her off his shoulders. He then goes to throw her, but she clings to his arm. He flings his arm one more time, giving it a small shock, forcing her to let go. While in the air, she begins to adjust herself, so she could land on her feet, but before she could touch the ground, Victor shoots a bolt of electricity off at her. It slams into her, throwing her back even farther, making her smash into some equipment and lying very still.

* * *

Reed Richards is one of the most intellgant beings in the Marvel Universe

* * *

"Ben, Ben!" Sue whispers as she runs up to Ben's prone body.

"Sue!" Johnny calls out.

"Johnny! The machine worked!" Sue calls back. "Give me a hand!"

Johnny comes running over to help Sue when he sees Ben, "Ben!"

"Get his arm," Sue says.

"You alright, Ben? Put him on the steps," Johnny says as he helps Sue drag Ben over to the steps of the machine. "What happien, big guy? I leave you for five minutes."

"The machine," Ben huffs out, "Vic used it on himself. He was affected by the cloud, like us."

"Where's Reed?" Sue asks.

"Vic must of taken him."

"Yeah, but where is Addy?" Johnny asks. Ben snaps his attention from the glass hole to look at Johnny. "She came after you stormed off in a huff."

Ben stands up and yells out, "Addy!" Sue and Johnny stand up as well, and joins him.

Johnny wanders around the room and notices mess that wasn't there before. He gets a little closer to it, then starts to run when he notices a pair of tanned fur and clawed feet sticking out. He drops down near her head and calls out, "Hey guys, over here! I found her." Both Sue and Ben comes running over, just in time to see Johnny pulling his fingers a way from her neck. "She's alive."

Ben sweeps her groaning figure up and takes her to her room. Sue and Johnny walks out on to a balcony, hoping to find Reed there, just like when they found Addy. They get to middle of the balcony and look up at the damage that was caused. They turn to look out, when they hear a roaring noise, to see a missle coming straight at them. Sue looks at Johnny and he looks down at himself. Ben comes walking towards them, not knowing what was going on.

"Oh, no!" Johnny exclaims as he runs over to the railing.

"We gotta get out of here," Sue says.

"I've got an idea," Johnny says without looking at her. He steps back and rubs his hands together.

"Don't even think about it."

"Never do," he replies, runs towards the edge, and jumps.

"What are you doing!? Johnny, no!" Sue runs towards the edge and looks over to watch her brother.

Sue turns to see Ben leaning against a stair railing, panting. "We have to help Reed!"

Sue grabs him by his shoulders and says, "It's to dangerous for you now. You have to stay here." She then take off running towards her room.

Ben sighes as he watches her go. "What did I do?" He continues to stare and then an idea strikes him. He turns to look at the machine, thoughts flying through his head, then he looks back at Sue's form. Once she left, he heads for the machine and begins to press buttons, trying to get it to work.

A bright light seeps into Addy's room. Her body screams in protest as she forces it up. She stands up and walks slowly out her door. She then makes her way over to the railling on the tier. The machine finally stops and the doors open. She watches as a tall rocky man walks out. "Ben?"

He looks up and see her standing there. "Addy, you should be in bed."

Addy goes around the tier, finds the stairs, goes down them, and head towards Ben. She stops in front of him and looks him in his eye. "I'm fine. What are you doing?"

Ben's hands shoot out and grabs her shoulders, when he notices her being to wobble over, steadying her. "Yeah, right. You're fine." He leads her over to a chair and forces her to sit down. "You stay here, kiddo. I'll be back."

She watches him leave and slumps in the chair a little, finally getting a chance to show a little weakness. Her eyes close. She could feel and hear her heart beating. After a while, she opens her eyes, stands up, and heads for the elevator. She press a button and the elevator begins to move. She steps into the lobby, when she reaches ground floor and steps through the wrecked doors, on to the street. She looks around, trying to determine where to go next, when she get's a whiff of Ben's scent. She sniffs the air and begins to head in the same direction to follow it.

She finely gets close enough to the strongest scent, when she hears "Good-bye Ben."

As she starts to run the corner, she hears Reed say, "I can't let you do that!"

"Reed?" Victor laughes, "I'll be right with you."

Addy finally get's a little closer that her feline vision starts to watch as Victor lifts up a pole and goes to slam it down, in what she assumes to be Ben. She hears a thunk and smiles when it won't go any closer to Ben as a blueish light glows, indicating Sue's force field.

"Hello, Susan." Victor turns to see Sue now standing next to Reed. "You three, are pathetic."

Addy hears the sound of a flame hit Victors arm and watches as Johnny lands next to Sue. Victor looks from his arm and at Johnny. "You miss me!"

Addy gets a chesire cat like grin and takes off running, on all fours. She leaps into the air, uses Victor's head as an extra spring board, and lands next to Johnny. Turns she looks at Victor and says, "I've got eight more lifes to go."

Ben gets up and goes to stand next to Reed. "Had a little relapse, huh?" Johnny asks. Ben shoots him a look and Johnny smiles. "Welcome back!"

"This, is gonna be fun!" Victor gloats, as he begins to draw electricty from the surrounding power lines. Once he gets enough of a charge, he shoots a bolt at Johnny. Johnny starts to fall over, but Addy catches him. Ben starts to charge up, to take Victor out, but Victor shoots another bolt at him, causing him to fly backwards. When Sue, deflects a flying object from hitting the crowd, Victor turns and fires a bolt at her.

Sue throws her arm up, causing a force field to block it, but Victor keeps the charge still going. "I can't hold it!"

Addy goes running towards Victor, and kicks him with both feet. She continues to run on when she see Reed come rolling over. Reed jumps up, flats out like a sheet and wraps Victor up. "Johnny, super nova!"

"I thought we agreed that was bad!" Johnny hollors back at Reed.

"Now!"

Johnny goes running towards them and flames up, flying up into the air.

"Addy!" Reed screams as he stretches out towards her.

"Gottcha," she says as she grips Reed's arms. She gives a powerful yank and pulls Reed off of Victor.

Johnny comes flying down and starts to swirl around Victor. Victor starts to fire off a few bolts, trying to hit Johnny. "Sue! You think you can contain it?" Reed yells over to her.

Sue grims as she throws a force field out and around the fire vortex. Ben stands nearby and quietly says, "Flame on, kid."

Victor keeps trying to throw out a couple of bolts. He turns to try and look out, giving a cry of anger. Sue stands there, trying to hold her shield as long as she can, not even noticing her nose starting to bleed. Finally her shield pops and Johnny flys out, flames disappearing from his body. Addy runs over and grabs him, pulling him out of the way.

They stand there looking as the fire dies down, showing a melting metal form of Victor standing there. "Is that the best you can do, a little heat?"

"Time for your lesson," Reed says to Victor, "chem 101. What happens when you rapidly cool hot metal?"

Ben walks over to a fire hydrant and kicks the top off. "Ben!" Reed calls out. He then places his foot on the geyser of water, redirecting it towards Reed. Victor starts to run towards Reed, but Reed stretches and twists until the water starts to shoot at Victor.

Victor trys his hardest to move towards Reed, but it gets harder as more and more steam begins to rise off of him. Finally after a few tense seconds, Ben closes up the fire hydrant. They all stand there, looking, breathing hard, and waiting for all the steam to clear. When it starts to, a shadowy form could be seen. The steam finally disappears enough to show a metal statue like Victor standing there, not moving.

"Whoa!" Ben says as he looks at the form of Victor. Ben then walks over to Johnny and Addy. "You done good, kid." He looks at Addy, supporting Johnny up. "You too, kiddo." Johnny takes hand that wasn't being supported and slaps Ben on the shoulder. "Come on," Ben directs with his head, as he turns and walks towards Reed and Sue.

Johnny and Addy watch as Reed walks towards Sue. "I think I can support myself, now."

"Okay," Addy just says as she let's go of his arm.

Reed bends down a little and trys to help Sue up, asking, "Sue, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She get's up with Reed's help.

Johnny comes up and claps Reed on his shoulder. Reed looks at him, then at the group of people that got closer to cheer for them. "Man, I love this job!" Johnny exclaims wearily.

Ben turns to look at Johnny. "Job, huh?"

"Well, we do have the suits," Reed adds in and looks over to Ben.

* * *

The Fantastic Four is Marvel's flag ship superhero team.

* * *

Addy sat on the railing on the upper most level of the cruise ship. She could hear the party going on down in the room it was being held in. Thoughts had been running in her head after that battle with Victor. She didn't like any of them, at all, but she knew that now she had to decide what she wanted to do about them. She watches as a couple come out of the party down below and heads towards the railing. After a few seconds she realises it was Reed and Sue. Carefully she turns her head to listen in on them.

"I found a broken gasket," Reed says, looking at Sue, "from space."

"A gasket? Reed come on. There are..." She starts to indicate towards the party, but Reed stops her.

"If one us were to wear it," He holds up something that glints a little in his fingers. Addy watches as he stretches to take to one knee. "No more thinking, no more variables." The rest of his body, slowly slides back down into place and he looks up at Sue. "Sue Storm. Will you marry me?" She turns invisiable, leaving her clothes standing there. Her hand reaches out and slids the ring on to her finger. "Sue, you kind of need to, say something."

"Oh!" Sue responds. "Yes, yes."

Reed sighes and stands back up, he then leans in to kiss her.

Sue laughes. "That's my nose, genius," she says as she begins to appear again. "This are my lips." She touches his face and guides him in for a kiss.

Addy smiles and watches as they stop to look back at the party. She then sees Johnny go running out on the deck, followed by Ben's thumping foot steps.

"Flame On!" Johnny screams as he flys up and into the air.

She watches as he flys out and smiles when she hears Ben holler, "Show off!" She then watches as Johnny goes out and makes the five insignia for their team. Frowning she shakes her head, hating to do what she had finally decided to do. She sat there for most of the night and was glad when it was time for them to go home. She sat in her room writing a letter to everyone in the house hold, then she puts it in an envelope and seals it. She sits and waits for a time when she knows that everyone, even Reed would be asleep. Finally she sneaks out of her room and puts the envelope on the fridge, with a magnet. She sneaks quietly to the elevator and press the down button. The elevator dings and opens it's doors. "Bye, guys," she says as she turns to look back into the building. She steps into the elevator, press the ground floor button, and whispers out as the doors close, "I'll miss you."

After finally making it too the ground floor she begins to walk out, when Jimmy stops to talk to her, with his arm in a sling. "Going out, Miss Weston?"

Addy gives a small sad smile. "Yeah, Jimmy. Need to clear my head."

"Be carefully out there, you know it's not safe, at this time of night."

Addy gives another faint smile and responds, "You should know, I can take care of myself."

Jimmy watches as she walks out the door, never to be seen again.


End file.
